Jer 31:1-20 There is Hope in Your End Saith The Lord

[Study Aired February 13, 2022]

Jer 31:1  At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:2  Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
Jer 31:3  The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Jer 31:4  Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.
Jer 31:5  Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things.
Jer 31:6  For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.
Jer 31:7  For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel.
Jer 31:8  Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither.
Jer 31:9  They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.
Jer 31:10  Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
Jer 31:11  For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
Jer 31:12  Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
Jer 31:13  Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
Jer 31:14  And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.
Jer 31:15  Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.
Jer 31:16  Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
Jer 31:17  And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.
Jer 31:18  I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God.
Jer 31:19  Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.
Jer 31:20  Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.

The Lord has an elect to whom He refers variously as Israel and Samaria, and as Judah and Jerusalem. In this present time, He is “scarcely saving… a very little remnant” as His elect. He is purifying us through ‘fiery… judgments of chastening and scourging’ (1Co 3:13-16, Heb 12:6, 1Pe 4:12-17). As the Lord’s fiery judgments chasten us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts, He also reminds us that we are His special people, and He encourages us as such to strive for the mark  of the prize of the high calling which is in Christ Jesus:

Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after [G1377: dioko, to pursue… persecute], if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14  I press [G3177: dioko, to pursue… persecute] toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
Php 3:16  Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
Php 3:17  Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample.
Php 3:18  (For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
Php 3:19  Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)

The way we “press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God is by “Christ working in [us] both to will and to do of His good pleasure”:

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

The Lord is the One who is willing and doing His good pleasure in us by reminding us that He is working all things – our sins, iniquities, and rebellions, as well as our “chastening and scourging… to forsake ungodliness… after the counsel of His own will” – for our good:

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Tit 2:9  Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again;
Tit 2:10  Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things.
Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [G3811: ‘paideuo’, chastening] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;

“All things” of Romans 8:28 and Ephesians 1:11 certainly includes all the words of this prophecy of Jeremiah:

Jer 31:1  At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people.

We must look at the last two verses of our last study to see what the Lord means by these words. “At the same time…”:

Jer 30:23  Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD goeth forth with fury, a continuing whirlwind: it shall fall with pain upon the head of the wicked.
Jer 30:24  The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.

It is that “at the same time” the Lord is pouring out His fury… with pain upon the head of the wicked” that He is also “the God of all the families of Israel and [we] are [His] people”.

Jer 31:2  Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.

It is the remnant who “find grace in the wilderness”. “The sword” is both the Word of the Lord (Eph 6:17) and “the wicked” who destroy the Lord’s people:

Psa 17:7  Shew thy marvellous lovingkindness, O thou that savest by thy right hand them which put their trust in thee from those that rise up against them.
Psa 17:8  Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings,
Psa 17:9  From the wicked that oppress me, from my deadly enemies, who compass me about.
Psa 17:10  They are inclosed in their own fat: with their mouth they speak proudly.
Psa 17:11  They have now compassed us in our steps: they have set their eyes bowing down to the earth;
Psa 17:12  Like as a lion that is greedy of his prey, and as it were a young lion lurking in secret places.
Psa 17:13  Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:

Therefore, there is an ‘anointed’ who are “left of the Lord in the wilderness”, and there is an ‘anointed’ who are rejected of the Lord as were Esau and King Saul.

Wicked Israel during the time of wicked King Saul took the ark of God into battle with the false hope that because they were God’s “special people” (Deu 7:6), and because King Saul was indeed God’s anointed king of Israel (1Sa 10:1), therefore there was no way they could lose their lives while battling the Gentile Philistines. Such was not the case, and King Saul died in battle with the Philistines because he entertained and believed such a false doctrine. It is because the Lord loves us that He chastens us to forsake ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live godly lives in this present world:

Tit 2:11  For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,
Tit 2:12  Teaching [G3811: ‘paideuo’, chastening] us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Tit 2:13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
Tit 2:14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.
Tit 2:15  These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

Esau was just an earlier version of King Saul. Both typify the self-righteous spirit of Babylon. Esau, unlike Ishmael, was born of the same father and the same mother. King Saul and King David were both “the Lord’s anointed” by the same prophet, Samuel. Both Esau and King Saul falsely assumed that their close relationship with God made them completely incapable of being separated from Him in their present time. Such is not the case for any of us including the apostle Paul who set us this example of the state of mind we should have toward our relationship with God:

1Co 9:25  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
1Co 9:26  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:
1Co 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Paul never took his anointing for granted. Rather, he considered it a real possibility that he, too, ‘could be a castaway’ as had happened to so many who had been close to him:

2Ti 4:10  For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica; Crescens to Galatia, Titus unto Dalmatia.

Paul went on to clarify what should be our mindset towards our relationship with the Lord “in this present world”. Equating his time in ‘the Jews’ religion’ with the spirit that was in Esau and King Saul he says:

Gal 1:13  For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:
Gal 1:14  And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

After listing all his accomplishments “in the Jews’ religion” Paul makes this statement for our admonition:

Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.
Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
Php 3:11  If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Php 3:12  Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after [G1377: ‘dioko’ pursue] if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
Php 3:14  I press [G1377: ‘dioko’, pursue] toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Php 3:15  Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.

Paul knows that if he is indeed ‘pursuing’ the Lord he is doing so only because the Lord is giving him the will and strength to do so (Php 2:12-13), yet he says, “I press toward the mark” just as He exhorts us to “work out [our] own salvation while recognizing that “it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure”:

Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

When we fear and tremble before God as we work out our own salvation, we do it all “because it is God working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure”.

Job, like the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, was made to be “afraid of [God]”, as the Lord was in the process of bringing him to see his own self-righteous iniquity:

Job 23:15  Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.

The Lord alone gives us the gift of fearing Him and yet trusting Him:

Psa 56:3  What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee.

Psa 119:120  My flesh trembleth for fear of thee; and I am afraid of thy judgments.

In the book of Job, Satan is called the Lord’s “hand”:

Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.

Job 2:5  But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 2:6  And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, he is in thine hand; but save his life.
Job 2:7  So went Satan forth from the presence of the LORD, and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown.

Satan does only what the Lord sends him to accomplish; nothing more and nothing less.

While the world glorifies Satan as a powerful adversary who is winning the war for the hearts and minds of mankind, the Lord’s word reveals that Satan is nothing more than an implement of adversity in the Lord’s hand. It is the Lord who calls all the shots. He first hedges Satan out of Job’s life. Then He sends Satan with the order to take away all of Job’s possessions, including his seven sons and three daughters. However, Satan was not permitted to touch Job himself. Satan did just exactly what he was told to do; nothing more, nothing less. After taking all Job’s possessions, then the Lord sent His ‘hand’, Satan, to afflict Job’s body but he was not permitted to take Job’s life. Satan again did exactly what he was given to do.

In the end, the Lord rebuked Job for his self-righteous iniquity. After showing Job that he had been contending with, reproving, and condemning God Himself to make himself more righteous than God, after bringing Job to repentance, then the Lord replaced double what Job had lost.

Job 42:10  And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.

The experience of Job typifies what the Lord is doing with each of us if we are His elect. He will not lose a single one of His sheep.

Jer 31:3  The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.

The Hebrew word translated ‘drawn’ in this verse is:

H4900
מָשַׁךְ
mâshak
maw-shak’
A primitive root; to draw, used in a great variety of applications (including to sow, to sound, to prolong, to develop, to march, to remove, to delay, to be tall, etc.): – draw (along, out), continue, defer, extend, forbear, X give, handle, make (pro-, sound) long, X sow, scatter, stretch out.

This word is the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word ‘helkuo’ which is also translated as ‘draw’ in this verse:

Joh 6:44  No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw [G1670: ‘helkuo’, drag] him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Here is the definition of ‘helkuo’:

G1670
ἑλκύω, ἕλκω
helkuō    helkō
hel-koo’-o, hel’-ko
Probably akin to G138; to drag (literally or figuratively): – draw. Compare G1667.

Here is how the word ‘drawn’ is to be understood when the Lord tells us “with lovingkindness have I drawn thee”:

Gen 37:28  Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up [H4900: ‘mashak’, “to draw” or as is here demonstrated to drag] Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt.

The Lord’s love does not stop when we are unfaithful and disobedient. It is He who makes us to err and commit our sins and rebellions against Him and His ways. It is He who makes us “wicked for the day of evil” in the life of every man:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

He sends the tempter to make us do the things we don’t even want to do, and He informs us of this fact:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Paul had this same experience which we all have in our own time:

Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

Like each of us, Job knew the Lord was sovereign over the good and the evil. Unlike the churches of Babylon, Job did not credit Satan with his loss or with his pain. Job knew it was all a work of God:

Job 1:20  Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped,
Job 1:21  And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

At the beginning of his trials, Job worshiped and blessed the Lord in spite of losing all he had been given:

Job 1:22  In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.

Nevertheless, when Satan was given to afflict Job’s body with extremely painful boils from the crown of his head to the sole of his feet, Job began to wonder why God was being so hard on him for no apparent reason. He never once doubted it was all of God. He simply did not understand why the Lord was putting Him through so much anguish:

Job 9:28  I am afraid of all my sorrows, I know that thou wilt not hold me innocent.

It all happened to Job, and it is written to show us just how easy it is for us, when the Lord brings us to our “wits’ end” (Psa 107:27) to place ourselves above God Himself when we begin to question, contend with, reprove, and condemn the Lord to make ourselves appear more righteous than God Himself:

Job 27:6  My righteousness I hold fast, and will not let it go: my heart shall not reproach me so long as I live.
Job 27:7  Let mine enemy be as the wicked, and he that riseth up against me as the unrighteous.

Job’s enemy at this point was the Lord Himself just as He is against us when we are against Him:

Jer 18:11  Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.

As we see in this chapter of Jeremiah, when we return it is only because the Lord turned us back to Himself, and He, not us or our flesh, will get the glory for that.

Jer 31:4  Again I will build thee, and thou shalt be built, O virgin of Israel: thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets, and shalt go forth in the dances of them that make merry.
Jer 31:5  Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria: the planters shall plant, and shall eat them as common things.
Jer 31:6  For there shall be a day, that the watchmen upon the mount Ephraim shall cry, Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion unto the LORD our God.

As the Lord’s ‘watchmen’ that is exactly what we do every day. When we come together this is where we are:

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,
Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
Heb 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

The Lord already knows those who are His, and it is they who first trust in Him and are given His spirit to strengthen them to endure to the end the fiery trials of His judgments:

Jer 31:7  For thus saith the LORD; Sing with gladness for Jacob, and shout among the chief of the nations: publish ye, praise ye, and say, O LORD, save thy people, the remnant of Israel. [The few elect]
Jer 31:8  Behold, I will bring them from the north country [From Babylon], and gather them from the coasts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall return thither. [The publicans, the lost sheep, and the prodigal son]
Jer 31:9  They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn.

There it is again. Any and all who “come with weeping” and who “walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they do not stumble” will do so only because the Lord “will cause” them to do so. No flesh will glory in His presence:

1Co 1:26  For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:
1Co 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

Jer 31:10  Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.

The Lord does both the scattering and the gathering, and He works all the details that cause Him to do both:

Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Jer 31:11  For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.

Paul makes it very clear that our flesh is much stronger than we are:

Rom 7:15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

From the foundation of the world, the Lord has promised us that we will, in our own appointed time, overcome “him that is stronger than [we are]”. He has promised all men we will, each in his own order (1Co 15:23), rule over sin in our lives:

Gen 4:6  And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen?
Gen 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

Jer 31:12  Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

The Lord’s goodness is His Words, and the wheat, the wine, the oil are also Biblical symbols of His Truths. It is His Words and His Truths which feed our young of the flock and the herd. It is His Words and His doctrines which water our garden where we are laboring in His service, and it is His Words which will remove forever all sorrow.

Jer 31:13  Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

We are the virgin bride of our Lord:

2Co 11:2  For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

We are also the young and the old men in Christ:

1Jn 2:13  I write unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because ye have overcome the wicked one. I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father.
1Jn 2:14  I have written unto you, fathers, because ye have known him that is from the beginning. I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one.

Jer 31:14  And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, saith the LORD.

The priests of Christ are ‘satiated with the fatness’ of His Truth, because Christ is the Truth, and that alone “satisfies” His priests.

Joh 6:35  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Joh 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

Joh 17:17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
Joh 17:18  As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

Jer 31:15  Thus saith the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rahel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not.

This is the verse which is quoted in the New Testament and applied to Herod’s killing of all the male children from two years old and under because the wise men were told by an angel not to reveal the location of Christ to Herod:

Mat 2:16  Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.
Mat 2:17  Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying,
Mat 2:18  In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.

This verse of Revelation comes to mind as the inward spiritual application of this prophecy:

Rev 12:1  And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
Rev 12:2  And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
Rev 12:3  And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.
Rev 12:5  And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.
Rev 12:6  And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.

This ‘great red dragon’ enters into all of us, and he is given to kill us before this world because we are this man child ‘who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron’:

Rev 1:6  And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Rev 2:26  And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:
Rev 2:27  And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

The whole world, both Babylon and the secular world, agree on one thing and one thing only, and that is that Christ and His doctrine cannot and will not be tolerated because the doctrines of Christ condemn both the secular world with its doctrine of free will, and the great whore who controls the kings of the secular world. Remember as you read these verses that hatred is the Biblical equivalent of murder just as lust in one’s heart is the equivalent of adultery:

1Jn 3:15  Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him.

With that Truth in mind, it is clear that we are “dead in the street of that great city” Babylon, just as we have murdered our own Lord in our own appointed time:

Rev 11:3  And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Rev 11:4  These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth.
Rev 11:5  And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.
Rev 11:6  These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.
Rev 11:7  And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8  And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.

Being “crucified with Christ” is in reality a reason for great rejoicing:

Php 4:4  Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

Jer 31:16  Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
Jer 31:17  And there is hope in thine end, saith the LORD, that thy children shall come again to their own border.

We are saved by hope:

Rom 8:22  For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?
Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.

This is a theme of all prophecy. Prophecy is for edification, exhortation and comfort, and these words certainly fill that bill.

1Co 14:3  But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.

It is the same message we have already heard in chapter 29:

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jer 29:12  Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jer 29:13  And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

King David declares this same message:

Psa 50:14  Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:
Psa 50:15  And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.

The Lord requires that our submission be sincere, honest, and total. He will have no part in a half-hearted, “lukewarm” servant:

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
Rev 3:15  I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth
Rev 3:17  Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18  I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19  As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Rev 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Rev 3:21  To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Rev 3:22  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

Jer 31:18  I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God.

“Turn you me” has absolutely nothing to do with my own fabled ‘free will’. The scriptures read “Turn YOU me”, and this is accomplished by the Lord’s chastening hand in the lives of every son He receives. That is the meaning of “You chastised me, and I was chastised.” The prophets give all the credit for what Israel does – good or evil – to the Lord, who Jeremiah calls “the Potter”:

Jer 18:1  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 18:2  Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.
Jer 18:3  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels.
Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Jer 18:5  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
Jer 18:6  O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

It is the Lord Himself who “caused [Jeremiah] to hear”, and it was the Lord Himself who made Israel marred before making Israel new, “another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.” We are nothing more than “clay in the hand of the Potter”, and our rebellious carnal mind despises that Truth.

Isaiah is even more explicit:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

That Truth continues to be expressed in our next verses:

Jer 31:19  Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

Yes, it is all by the Lord. He makes light, and He makes darkness. He makes good, and He makes evil. We repent of the evil that He makes us to do, and we turn back to Him only after He drags us to repentance. Then He makes us to be ashamed of our spiritual nakedness and self-righteousness. We must all “bear the reproach of [our] youth” as “carnal… babes in Christ”. We are totally incapable of seeing ourselves as “carnal… babes in Christ”. While in Babylon we think of ourselves as mature children in the lying, deceitful doctrines of Babylon which rule over us for so many years. What we thought of as ‘light’ was in fact nothing more than self-righteous darkness, and it was “great… darkness, [and] strong delusion”. The Lord put us into that darkness, and He alone can drag us out because He, and He alone, can make good come out of evil and call light out of darkness:

Gen 45:4  And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5  Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6  For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7  And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8  So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

Joseph’s brothers did not believe what he told them, and therefore they tormented themselves for the next seventeen years until Jacob died. Joseph again confirms his love for his self-righteous brothers who had sold him into Egypt:

Gen 50:16  And they [Joseph’s brothers] sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying,
Gen 50:17  So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.
Gen 50:18  And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.
Gen 50:19  And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God?
Gen 50:20  But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it [the evil He made you think against me] unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
Gen 50:21  Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

This is all the work of the Lord who alone can make good come out of evil. He, and He alone can also “call light out of darkness”, the darkness which He must first create:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Isa 45:7  I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.

2Co 4:6  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

1Pe 2:9  But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

The Lord alone is in a position of sovereignty which requires that He first create darkness and make us wicked before He can deliver us. It is essential that He deliver us from the “day of evil” for which He made us (Pro 16:4). That fact brings us to our last verse of today’s study:

Jer 31:20  Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.

Here is the New Testament way of expressing the sentiment of this verse:

Php 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

That is our study for today, and these are our verses for our next study:

Jer 31:21  Set thee up waymarks, make thee high heaps: set thine heart toward the highway, even the way which thou wentest: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these thy cities.
Jer 31:22  How long wilt thou go about, O thou backsliding daughter? for the LORD hath created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass a man.
Jer 31:23  Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As yet they shall use this speech in the land of Judah and in the cities thereof, when I shall bring again their captivity; The LORD bless thee, O habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness.
Jer 31:24  And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all the cities thereof together, husbandmen, and they that go forth with flocks.
Jer 31:25  For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.
Jer 31:26  Upon this I awaked, and beheld; and my sleep was sweet unto me.
Jer 31:27  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of beast.
Jer 31:28  And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the LORD.
Jer 31:29  In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s teeth are set on edge.
Jer 31:30  But every one shall die for his own iniquity: every man that eateth the sour grape, his teeth shall be set on edge.
Jer 31:31  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
Jer 31:32  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
Jer 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer 31:34  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Jer 31:35  Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is his name:
Jer 31:36  If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever.
Jer 31:37  Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.
Jer 31:38  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the city shall be built to the LORD from the tower of Hananeel unto the gate of the corner.
Jer 31:39  And the measuring line shall yet go forth over against it upon the hill Gareb, and shall compass about to Goath.
Jer 31:40  And the whole valley of the dead bodies, and of the ashes, and all the fields unto the brook of Kidron, unto the corner of the horse gate toward the east, shall be holy unto the LORD; it shall not be plucked up, nor thrown down any more for ever.